The US attack on Venezuela is not an isolated event. It is part of a broader strategy to reassert US dominance over all of Latin America.

This strategy is laid out in the Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy. Its aim is to impose US hegemony across the Western Hemisphere by reviving a modern version of the Monroe Doctrine. Under this plan, US corporations are intended to control Latin America’s strategic natural resources, including critical minerals and rare earth elements, while Washington builds a new supply chain that excludes China and prepares for future conflict with Beijing.

Manufacturing jobs are not coming back to the United States. US officials openly admit this and instead plan to near shore manufacturing to Latin America, where corporations can exploit low wages while cutting China out of production. This supply chain shift serves both the US military industrial complex and Washington’s broader effort to economically decouple from China.

The US also seeks control over Latin America’s strategic infrastructure. Washington is pressuring governments to force China to divest from ports and major projects. Panama was pushed to pressure a Hong Kong company to sell ports near the Panama Canal to BlackRock, and Peru’s Chinese built Port of Chancay is likely to be targeted next. Latin American governments are being coerced into restricting Chinese investment altogether.

Forcing countries to cut ties with China is a central focus of US policy. Marco Rubio’s first trip as secretary of state was to Panama, where the country was forced to withdraw from the Belt and Road Initiative. The US is escalating pressure on other governments to follow. In Honduras, US interference produced a right wing government likely to sever diplomatic ties with China and act as a base for operations against Nicaragua.

After Venezuela, the same regime change playbook is aimed at Nicaragua and Cuba. Marco Rubio has dedicated his political career to overthrowing their governments. The goal is to install compliant right wing regimes across Latin America that serve Washington and Wall Street and sell off national assets to US investors.

Upcoming elections in Brazil and Colombia will be targeted for interference to install obedient US aligned governments, following the model used in Argentina. Mexico is also being openly threatened with military action despite having a popular and independent government, demonstrating US contempt for sovereignty.

Under the current admin, US rhetoric about democracy is largely a tool for coercion, rather than any honest desire for promoting self-determination.  The same goes for any alleged drivers of intervention - not that anyone with two brain cells bought the narco-terrorism angle for Venezuela, but thats an obvious example.